Video game allows you take aim at JFK

A new video game is being released today in connection with the 41st anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, but not without controversy.

Kennedy motorcade in ‘JFK Reloaded’ (Traffic Games)

“JFK Reloaded” is being called “despicable” by a spokesman for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the late president’s brother.

Yet Kirk Ewing, managing director of the Scottish game company Traffic, insists he and his team have nothing but respect for JFK, as well as history.

“We believe that the only thing we’re exploiting is new technology,” Ewing told Reuters, explaining the game was designed to undermine the belief there was a clandestine plot behind the assassination. “We believe passionately there was no conspiracy.”

The objective is to fire three shots at Kennedy’s motorcade in Dallas from assassin Lee Harvey Oswald’s sixth-floor perch in the Texas School Book Depository, all of which has been digitally re-created.

Players simulate assassin role in ‘JFK Reloaded’ (Traffic Games)

Points are awarded depending on how accurately the shots match the official version of events as documented in by the Warren Commission, which probed the assassination.

Scores can also be subtracted for “errors,” such as striking first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

On its website, Traffic explains the technology used in the game is quite advanced, and answers questions in somewhat graphic terms regarding bullet and character performance.

“The bullets travel through the air at the correct speed – they don’t instantly reach their target. Therefore you have to shoot in front of moving targets (“aim off”) in order to hit them. ….

When bullets hit objects, they react according to the material they hit. For instance, they will pass through glass and upholstery unhindered; pass through flesh with some deflection; and either glance off or pass through bone, depending on the angle of impact.”